Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-09-25

tune and broken in health. he was at
one time said to be worth 10000, 900.
The reporter had rubbed Aladdin's
lamp to some purpose to acquire such
a fortune.
BACK TO HIS NATIVE LAND.
He now returned to his native land
and in time regained his health. About
a year ago he returned to this country,
took an Office in the great Mills build
ing, on Broad street, and proceeded
quietly to push his way back into the
financial arena TO meet the other great
railroad gladiators. he was backed by
wealthy bankers Of Berlin. Now, at
length, he is again in the Northern
Pacific directorate, not as a dead Cid
on horseback in CHASTITY semblance of
life, but a genuine live leader with the
sinews Of financial life at his command
and cleared field for operations. He
has negotiated come big loans already
in connection with enterprises in the
Northwest, and now he seems to be
arranging for a loan of some ten mil
lions to the Northern Pacific. He is on
his way to financial rehabilitation.
In person he is tall and powerfully
built, wears heavy dark moustache, has
black hair, and is inclined to badness.
The eyes are gray, penetrating, and
rather forbidding, the features are
heavy, the jaw firm, and the whole face
suggests Bismarck. 1t is that of man
of blood and iron. His manners are
taciturn. He is not gentleman in the
ordinary acceptation of the term at
times he seems as rude and rough as
Teutonic savage of a thousand years
ago, the ancient, half-naked northern
barbarian by some strange chance APP
pearing in the broadcloth and silk hat
of the modern financier. This brutal
ity of manner has made him many enc
mics, but his unquestioned ability, his
tirelecs perseverance, a certain rough
magnetism and iron resolution have re-
commended him to men of money in
spite of his first failure with the North
ern Pacific, and once more he grasps
the reins of power.
He is living very quietly in this city
with his wife, the daughter of the late
William Lloyd Garrison, the anti-slave-
nv agitator He has several children and
is exemplary in his domestic relations.
He is quite a fine pianist, and accom-
panies his eldest daughter on the vio-
lincello. In the heydey of his former
prosperity he built house on Madison
avenue nearly opposite the archiepisco-
pal palace attached to the st. Patricks
Cathedral. 1t suggests a Paris hotelof
one of the dncicn regime. 1t cost him
$50, coo. A year or two ago he sold it
for about half its cost. Whitelaw Reid
did not buy it, as has been reported,
but ID. o. Mills, to whom Mr. Reid is
so much indebted for financial aid,
bought it for his daughter, Mrs. White
law Reid.
The future career OF Henry Willard
will he watched with interest by finan-
ciels all over the country.
MAN WHO HANDLES MILLIONS.
When the ordinary man thinks o. tho
way in which money OF its equivalent,
grCenbacks and other negotiable secu-
rites, are made he has present before
Lis vision bolts and bars for the eXclu-
sion of burglars, armed guards to pre-
vent deliberate attack upon the
vsults, stern-featured men who watch
each other like so many cats, carefully
counting each scrap OF valuable paper,
and. lastly, a number OF keen-eyed,
invisible detectives watching them all
to prevent collision.
When this uptutored man thinks OF
how these valuable securities are
delivered to Their owners lac has dim
idea Of closed cart, carefully locked,
with q guard beside the driver and
another at the rear.
Nothing could be further from the
truth. I saw in a Broadway horse car
one evening not long since u tail. fine
looking man accompanied by mes
senger-boy. The latter carried small
package III strong, thick paper bound
with a stout string. 1t might have con-
tanned Gnything-a pair OF shoes or a
bundle of laundry-but it didn't. There
was in it 800 bonds of the Missouri
Pacific railroad which were being
carried in this apparently careless way |
to the house of Mr.. George Gould. |
That occurrence has been repeated !
many times.
The man who thus carried openly a |
large fortune and had it within his pow
or to handle without restriction riches /
TO such an enormous amount that the |
sum contained in the package was IA
mere triie in comparison Is the presl- |
dent Of n well-known bank note COM
pany.
had occasion to call upon him the |
other day and questioned him as to the !
position he occupied and the trust ne
cessarily reposed in him by wealthy |
men ard corporations. / was amazed |
to learn that he had it in his power to !
handle enormous sums of money with
ont being placed under any actual prac-
teal surveillance. In one way and an
other he had the access to securities
amounting to hundreds of millions OF
dollars. at times there were in his |
possession negotiable securities the par
value Of which would amount to more
than $500, goo.
Besides these, he had under his pri-
waite lock and key the plates from which
the bonds of nearly all the prominent
railroads and corporations OF the coun-
try could be duplicated. Bank notes
of nearly all the countries of the Anne
rican continent passed .through his |
bands, and the means OF reproducing /
them were within his power II he de-
sired to use this power he could for a
long time escape attracting any alton
ton, and before his crime could be dis |
covered he could have possessed him
self of an enormous fortune and have |
disappeared beyond the reach of the
law.
That such shrewd and wary financiers
rs George Gould and Russell Sage, |
both of whom are directors in this bank
note company, should place SO much
confidence i'll one man seems startling |
at first thought 1t would appear to
argue that they had an amount of con-
fidence in human nature that no one has
yet supposed them to possess. That
corporations and governments should
place it within the power of one man to
rob them of startlingly large sums of
money seems astounding. But the fact
is that there is no choice in the matter.
The bank. note business in this country
is all conducted in the same manner and
the same confidence is reposed in the
head of each concern.
c.ur,r.,,.,